Concepts Social mobility non cognitive skills Perry pre school program Education policy Social Mobility movement of individuals through a system at social hierarchy If you re born poor what are your odds you will be poor as an adult If you re born rich what are odds you will be rich as an adult Correlations children s income on x axis and parents income on y axis Situation parents income doesn t matter for children Situation parents income matters a little bit for children Situation parents income matters a lot for children o Straight line o Slight incline o Steep incline Is lack of social mobility a problem Why James J Heckman Over past 30 years o Properly measured not GED the high school graduation rate in America has fallen Strong evidence that GEDs do not have equal wages to those who graduate Same smarts less developed non cognitive skills Overall high school graduation rates about 75 65 for blacks and Hispanics o The real wages of high school graduates have increased relative to those of high school o These growing wage differentials have increased the economic incentive to graduate from dropouts high school Lessons for social policy Heckman 1 Life success depends on more than cognitive skills a Cognitive intelligence IQ learned info b Non cognitive physical and mental health as well as perseverance attentiveness motivation self confidence and other socio emotional qualities 2 Cognitive and non cognitive skills develop in early childhood heavily depend on family a Quality of family life more than family composition environment Lesson 3 pregnancy Policy focused on early interventions can improve cognitive and non cognitive performance o Promote schooling reduce crime foster workforce productivity and reduce teen o Much greater economic and social impact than the later interventions that are the focus of conventional PP debate reducing pupil teacher ratios providing public job training convict rehab programs adult literacy programs and tuition subsidies and spending on police Most predictors of who goes to college are present at age 6 schooling only plays a minor role Social Mobility Gap the genesis Changing the Trajectory Perry preschool program o 58 low income black children IQ 85 at age 3 Random assignment to treatment they get preschool and control no preschool conditions o the focus on the so called drop off in elementary years is based solely on cognitive achievement which data shows is less than half of the equation for success o This leads them to do better on standardized tests Early interventions help break the strong link b t parent child achievement o Strongest links in welfare teen parenting crime o Children born into disadvantageous families environments can learn non cognitive skills Caveat we need not only quantity of pre k but quality o 2 5 hours per day 5 days a week o Weekly home visit o Program stopped after 2 years Do these benefits disappear James Heckman Lasting effects IQ numbers fade Non cognitive skills improved At age 27 Cost benefit analysis Preschool programs are expensive Back to Social Mobility Concepts Funding Public Education Achievement gap Teacher quality No Child Left Behind Common Core Standards Education a positive externality The constitution refers to public education Well educated people help the common good o Contributing citizens o Better workforce Education Policy growing public interest and dissatisfaction Moving up on the policy agenda o Federal gov becoming involved Emerging policy issues o Access to college education o Funding K 12 education o The quality of K 12 edu Achievement gap of K 12 Education in urban areas Government role in K 12 Public education Traditionally financed and run by state and local government 1965 elementary and secondary education act ESEA federal funding for education How is K 12 education funded Funding sources 1 Local property tax levy about 2 5 of school funding 2 State funds about half 3 Minor federal funds Florida o 6 786 per student national average is about 10k 46 from prop taxes 36 from state Lottery money tends to go to higher edu bright futures 18 from federal government K 12 Funding Concerns Funded mostly by property taxes o Lack of buoyancy in property taxes Tax receipts don t rise with costs o Equity quality of education although tricky to measure How much should states provide o 50 now historically much more Concepts Funding Public Education Achievement Gap Teacher Quality No Child Left Behind NCLB Common Core Standards Quality issues in K 12 Education Difficult to measure Quality o Graduation rates College attendance o Standardized tests reading math scores o Non cognitive skills o Wrote learning rather than creativity Quality gaps o Racial economic disability and gender gaps o Quality of schools in poor rural and urban areas Achievement Gap Differences in educational achievement b t different groups What Successful education programs require UNESCO Strong curriculum Healthy children Well trained effective teachers Adequate facilities and equipment Welcoming environment Clear and accurate assessment of learning Participatory governance and management Engagement with community Teacher Quality Teacher quality is lower than past most important one to remember o 1999 study half of students have unqualified teachers in physical sciences o 2002 study classes taught out of field o Exacerbated in rural and poor areas Quality teachers hard to attract and retain o Incentives for good teaching Salary tenure o Best and brightest students don t go into teaching Compare to Finland top 10 of students enter required masters program to teach Must meet benchmarks in subgroups minorities English learners and the poor No Child Left Behind 2002 Expanded federal involvement Greater accountability for schools o Statewide proficiency testing like FCAT o All students proficient by 2014 o Schools graded on quality Strengthen teacher quality highly qualified Sanction schools that don t show adequate yearly progress Has NCLB worked Did math and reading scores increase since 2002 o Many states showed better proficiency rates Did achievement gap narrow o In some states Is this due to NCLB Challenges o Teaching to the test o Cost opportunity costs of testing Proposed Reforms Market based approaches Teacher quality approaches Reforms to NCLB Market based approaches competition increases quality Types of schools o Private schools parochial and secular o Charter schools o Public schools School choice families can choose
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